Breaking Sports: Lights 69, Western 65

Friday night's Frontier Conference men's basketball game between the 25th-ranked MSU-Northern Lights and the 19th-ranked UM-Western Bulldogs was billed as a matchup between the Frontier's top two teams. And the game lived up to the hype. Tied at 65 with three seconds left, Northern's Devin Jackson hit a floating shot in the lane to give the Lights the lead for good. Northern tacked on two more points after a dead-ball technical foul on Western head coach Steve Keller, as the Lights won 69-65 at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse.

The game was a seesaw affair throughout as the Lights led by just one point at halftime. Western went up by as many as six points in the second half as point guard Brandon Brown dropped 34 points on the Lights. But big shots late by Jackson and Sean Kelly helped the Lights come back to beat the Bulldogs for the first time in three tries.

Jackson and Joe Simpson each scored 18 points for Northern, which improved to 6-3 in conference play and 17-7 overall. Friday night's win gave the Lights sole posession of first place as they prepare to host Montana Tech on Saturday night.

For full coverage, see Monday's HDN.